posted on February 21, 2001 09:33:31 AM new
I totally agree with Ranchers post.
He enjoyed and lived his life doing what he loved. I'd even bet that if he'd been asked how he'd prefer to die, if he were given the choice, he'd have picked to die doing what he loved most, racing.
posted on February 21, 2001 10:40:28 AM new
I ,too will miss Dale, Sr. on the track. He was the driver that I loved to boo. Racing will not be the same without him. I always respected his great driving ability and his giving nature off the track. Dale was a driver that people felt strongly about, either applauding or booing. It will take a while to stop looking for the number 3 on the track. I also hope that it gets retired, I can't imagine anyone else behind the wheel of it. My prayers go out to his family and also to Michael Waltrip. It has to be hard to have your first win colored by this tragedy.
posted on February 22, 2001 08:29:19 AM new
The naysayers may think it's senseless to die while doing what one loves. I personally don't think so. While this death is tragic (and remember, most premature deaths are tragic), it certainly beats dying of a myocardial infarction because the individual lived their life sitting in front of a television set while gorging themselves on fried food, beer and cigarettes, merely existing, bored from one hour to the next, and contributing absolutely nothing to society.
Racing may not be firefighting, but living a life doing what one loves, rather than what we are complacent enough to accept, should rate highly on everyone's list. Society as a whole owes something to those free spirits who follow their dreams and who inspire greatness in others.
posted on February 22, 2001 09:42:37 AM new
Too bad - He did take the risk and lost. It is not like scuba diving or recreational flying. There are degrees of risk. It is more like the people who dive to 600 or 800 feet where you have to switch experimental air mixtures every so many feet and time it out perfect or you die. Or flying like the Blue Angels or other teams do - very very risky.
posted on February 22, 2001 05:51:21 PM newgravid: there are degrees of risk, true. But dead is dead. Is it any worse dying in a 180mph racing crash, than one at 65 mph on the freeway racing home from work? No. The person on the freeway knew the risks when they got on, didn't they? And more people die on the freeways than at the race track.
It is so sad that our society has come to see any sort of risk-taking as "bad". Children are curtailed from a great many things that we took for granted when I was a kid "because they might get hurt." If we become any more sedentary, we will lose the use of our limbs altogether.
BTW, I am going on a dive Sunday to the depth of between 60 & 100 feet. Frankly, that is just as dangerous as the ultra-deep dives you mention, because it is a totally alien environment. A diver who has an equipment failure can die just as easily at 60 ft. as 300. As mine will be a penetration wreck dive, it is considered very dangerous. Does this mean I shouldn't do it? Of course not. It means that I take every precaution I can & use common sense while doing the dive. I, for one, am not going to wrap myself in cotton wool.
posted on February 24, 2001 11:57:29 AM new
Many people here think it was OK to applaud Dale Earnhardt who died doing something that he loved, driving a race car. That was his chosen profession. What about the truck driver, hauling thousand gallons of gasoline, who is cut off by a motorist and dies in a fiery crash. Do we applaud the truck driver? After all this was his chosen profession. No we really don't. We simply forget that this has ever happened.
BUNNICULA,
If we take away all of NASCAR racing, society would still survive, however, if we took away all the police, firefighters, and military, our country would be in chaos.
ALKYHOLLER,
Your statement about Dale Earnhardt is very gratifying for the fans and admirers of him, but may be somewhat overblown. I think that more people would think that JFK would fit that profile more so than Dale Earnhardt.
MURIEL,
Go Muriel, It's your Birthday!
In other posts, many people have indicated their belief that DE was an American hero. I don't really think so. He was an American icon, just Elvis, Marylyn Monroe, and Ronald McDonald. If McDonalds was to stop using the clown mascot tomorrow, for several years in the future, we would recognize him. I believe that many people would recognize DE in the same way.
Now let's sound this out. Hero-Icon, Hero-Icon, Hero-Icon. You see they sound different because they are different words having different meanings. It's pretty simple, isn't it?
In today's news reports, they indicate that DE ordered a seatbelt be modified to meet his needs. An engineer who is also an expert in seatbelt design, said that he could have survived this crash if the belt wasn't tampered with.
